For 30 years now, the creative wackos at Klutz Press have been spreading their own brand of artistic anarchy throughout the staid world of publishing. Starting with their first book, the aptly-named “Juggling for the Complete Klutz”, the company has routinely produced titles that deliver the goods to their target market, the tween-to-teen-age consumer. Over the years, the product development team has unleashed such classics as the Battery Science Book (ISBN 1-59174-251-X, $24.99), the Solar Car (ISBN 1-57054-646-0, $29.99), the Squashing Flowers Book (ISBN 1-57054-591-X, $32.99) — and many, many more.

Now, however, it would appear that Klutz has outdone itself. Coming this September is a 412 page tome entitled The Encyclopedia of Immaturity, which apparently contains more than 300 entries on such skills as “How to Ride a Unicycle”, “How to Hang a Spoon from Your Nose”, and “How to Levitate”. (And let’s not forget “How to Really Annoy Your Older Sibling” — that one sounds especially noteworthy …)

The things in this book are what people my age did for fun back when we were kids, in the days before the advent of PS3s and day camps and the 700-channel universe made amusing oneself a quaintly anachronistic pastime. As the founder of Klutz Press, John Cassidy, says: “We’ve had to learn a great many skills over time, but growing up was never one of them. We’re hoping we’re hopeless”. I have to agree. I’m really looking forward to this.